Empowering the individual investor has helped Charles Schwab(NYSE: SCH) become the world's leading discount broker. Yet not all Fools are running in with their "Buy" orders for the stock.

This week, Chris Rugaber (TMF Chris) and Mike Renshaw (TMF Rimpy) are Dueling Fools. Chris has filed his optimism as a market order, while Mike's pessimism is good until canceled. Read on.

Bull Argument...
The leading discount brokerage in the country, Schwab has almost one trillion dollars (say it Dr. Evil-style) in client assets ($919.7 billion as of January 2001, to be exact), up significantly from just two years ago, when the company reported $644 billion in assets. Schwab is way ahead of other discount brokers such as E*Trade(NYSE: ET), which reported $52.6 billion in total client assets in its most recent quarterly report.
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Bear Argument...
Schwab has a fantastic earnings record over the past decade. Earnings growth has averaged at around 40% per year over the past 10 years, a stunning achievement for any company. If this earnings trend continues, then Schwab is beginning to look attractively valued at only $20 per share. However, if there was ever a time to follow the investing caveat that past performance is not indicative of future results, then Schwab's earnings trend would be it.
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